1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of communication receivers, and more particularly to a communication receiver having user configurable control functions.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Communication receivers, such as paging receivers, have been evolving as the technology has advanced, thereby to provide the communication receiver user not only basic receiver control, but also an ever increasing number of features and options which, while previously uneconomical, are now economically available. As a result, the communication receiver user is provided not only with basic receiver operational control, but with added performance and versatility due to the increased number of features and options which are now available. At the same time, advances in technology have also enabled the size of the communication receivers to be reduced substantially. Such size reductions have placed considerable strains on the number of controls which can be provided to accommodate user control of basic receiver operations, as well as control of the added features and options.
Prior art communication receivers generally have a fixed number of controls, or switches, having predefined functions for providing basic control of the communication receiver as well as selection of features and options. Such prior art communication receivers, as a result, were often considered user-unfriendly, because configuration of the basic receiver functions, features, and options was not intuitively obvious to the communication receiver user. Other approaches were taken within the prior art communication receivers to provide a more user-friendly operation. Among these approaches were the use of fixed indicia defining a primary set of receiver control functions, and non fixed indicia displayed adjacent the receiver controls which defined a secondary set of receiver control functions. Other approaches including displayed menus which when scrolled through by the communication receiver user, provided a predefined set of receiver control functions. "Soft key" menus were also provided which enabled redefining the receiver controls for a predetermined period of time through the use of displayed indicia as a function of receiver operating states, such as to provide receiver control functions in one instance and time control functions in another. Such "soft key" menus were also available as being predefined through the use of over-the-air programming, thereby adding increased function and versatility to the communication receiver at the time a message was received. These prior art approaches, while greatly improving the communication receiver user's ability to select and control, generally did so without the communication receiver user's personal input.
As described above, while numerous approaches to defining receiver control functions have been suggested for prior art communication receivers, such approaches did not allow the user to personally select which controls would be utilized to control basic receiver functions, or which controls would be utilized to select and control available features and options. Therefore, what is needed is a communication receiver that provides user configurable receiver control functions, thereby allowing the user to select operational sequences for controlling the communication receiver which are considered by the user as user-friendly, and which, because such control functions are defined by the communication receiver user, are therefor considered more intuitively obvious to the user.